“I prefer smaller projects than corporate things, and I was attracted to Le Marais because it just seems like there’s a lot of love and a lot of effort involved,” says pastry chef Phil Ogiela.

Ogiela is a well-regarded veteran of the local restaurant scene, having concocted desserts at places like Fifth Floor, Elisabeth Daniel, 231 Ellsworth, Aziza, Presidio Social Club, and most recently, Dandelion Chocolate. This afternoon, he will add Le Marais Bakery to his stat sheet. It’s a new French-inspired bakery and patisserie on Chestnut Street from owner Patrick Ascaso, baker Justin Brown and Ogiela, who is the pastry chef.

Designed by Paxton Gate, Le Marais features a dozen seats inside. All the baking is done on the premises. On offer are viennoiserie, gateaux, classic French staples (madeleines, financiers, macarons, bouchons), savories (quiches, croque monsieurs, galettes), sandwiches and Stumptown coffee; click here to see the full menu.

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For Ogiela, it’s a chance to get back to his first love: French pastry. A onetime philosophy major, he’s the kind of guy who might have a transcendent brownie at Outerlands, and then spends the next several weeks trying to (re)create his version of the ultra-light brownie: “I started thinking, what is a brownie? What is the essence of a brownie? A brownie is a badly made torte; I’m sure that’s where it comes from…”

At Le Marais, Ogiela is putting his twists on a traditional patisserie. His style tends towards the lighter, more savory, more subtle side of pastry. He says it’s one more reminiscent of Europe.

“My flavors tend to linger,” he says. “You don’t taste it in the first bite, but the oils stay in your mouth and coat your mouth. I worked for a Scottish Master Baker, and he used to say that if you could taste the flavor in the first three seconds you’re eating it, it’s too crude, too strong. It should take you two to three bites to get the full flavor.”

It’s a style that resounded with Ascaso, who was raised in France and was working on Le Marais when he and his wife fell in love with Ogiela’s desserts at Dandelion, where they tasted his take on the classic almond flour cake, pain de Gênes. It’s a cake that he’s made at different points in his career, dating back to Presidio Social Club, where he mentored Melissa Chou, who was his then-sous chef. It’s that mentorship role that inspired Ogiela to take the role at Le Marais, a relatively modest place compared to some of his prior stops.

“I like places with passion,” he says. “I’ve been baking a long time. I don’t know how many more years I’ll be baking but I think I have a few more years. I’ve worked some high-profile places and that’s fine. It used to be that I just wanted to do my things and my dessert, but now I’ve become more interested in teaching.”